USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Athol > History of Athol, Massachusetts > Part 20
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When Henry Fish died in 1846 his widow took over the management of his sizeable estate. She soon disposed of the
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hotel to its operator, Alonzo D. Phillips, who on January 5, 1851 conveyed the entire property to Sylvanus E. Twichell of Orange, a native of our town and brother of the great developer of transportation, Ginery Twichell. Mr. Twichell and his wife, Mersylvia, gave the hotel its unique name which still clings to it. In August, 1851 Mr. Twichell was appointed the Athol Depot Postmaster. His predecessor, Joseph W. Hammond, appointed when the office was established in 1849, left town with Mr. A. D. Phillips to join with him in the management of the American House in Fitchburg. The post office was at once removed to the hotel and remained there during the rest of Mr. Twichell's life.
Before 1850 J. C. Hill removed the ell of the Pequoig House down street to make way for a larger annex. This ell became the "Old Arcade" at main and Canal Streets, which was burned on December 2, 1898 beyond repair. In the hall of this build- ing the local Methodist Church had held its first meetings outside of private homes.
March 3, 1864 Mr. Twichell conveyed the hotel to John M. Smith and Sullivan Moore who less than three years later deeded it to Orrin F. Hunt and Adolphus Bangs. After a year
ADOLPHUS BANGS 1830 - 1913 Landlord of Pequoig House 1876 - 1886
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the partnership was dissolved and Mr. Bangs, a Civil War veteran, became the sole proprietor and operator of this famous hostelry. The fact that in 1870 sixty-three hundred and thirty-five guests registered at its desk attests to its popu- larity. With the good natured and jovial Mr. Bangs lived his "own father, Joel Bangs; also his wife's parents, Mr. and Mrs. Joseph F. Packard; as well as his daughter, Emogene, with her husbands, Charles Lovett and after his death her second hus- band, Al Fairbanks. "Grandpa" Joel Bangs, who had spent his earlier life in the south part of New Salem but had lived in Athol for forty years, died at the hotel on November 17, 1891. His part of the management was to toddle out on the front porch at meal times dressed in a frock coat and tall hat and sound the gong. After nineteen years as its landlord, Mr. Adolphus Bangs leased his property and retired from active control.
The old hotel office was the gathering place of the leaders of the town six evenings a week. For fifty years this office had been the meeting place of the business men of the town. They gathered nightly to hear the news and discuss affairs in general, the meetings being dubbed the "Pequoig Senate." The fireplace in the north end of the room gave a cheerful aspect to the smoke-filled room. But a new landlord made them less welcome, so on November 9, 1891 the Poquaig Club was organized to assure a continuance of their gatherings. First, they had rooms on the second floor of the bank building where Judge Duncan later had his offices. These being hardly adequate, they arranged with Lucien Lord for quarters in the new Academy of Music building. The present telephone rooms were built for them and there they stayed for nearly twenty years. For years the membership roll of this club included the name of about every prominent man in town.
In 1892 Mr. Lucien Lord had so far progressed with his elaborate real estate enterprises that he insisted he must have a street opened through land he had acquired of the Sally Fish estate, across the west end of the "Island" to his flourishing Lake Park, but the ell of the old hotel and its tavern barn blocked his way. After some negotiations he became the owner of the entire hotel property and proceeded to build the present Pequoig Block. The town accommodatingly laid out Exchange Street north for him, he taking the contract to build the road including the two bridges at a ridiculously low figure. In his building program he hired H. P. Cummings and Company of Ware as contractors to erect an immense barn on the ex- tension of Exchange Street just laid out. This building, which
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is now the A. K. Turner barn, was built to replace the hotel stable, demolished when the street was made.
In his operations to finance the hotel building he borrowed of the Ware Savings Bank on a first mortgage and a substantial sum of his friend, George D. Bates on a second lien. The "hard times" of 1893 were his undoing and although he car- ried on until 1900, he finally sought relief in the bankruptcy court. Mr. Bates foreclosed his mortgage and he and his heirs remained its owners for a quarter of a century, eventually selling to the Garbose interests.
It is impossible to name all who have operated this old inn and its new building in the more than sixty years which have elapsed since Mr. Bangs retired from active control, but several names are recalled-Jaquith & Howland, George F. Lord, Aldrich and Stone, Frank A. Aldrich alone, Oscar C. Allen, Marcus Livingstone, and William P. Fox.
Verily, the automobile, the quick lunch, and the wayside cabins seriously curtailed the patronage of the old taverns, which two generations ago were the center of activity in all of these towns. With the evolution of transportation so the change in the sequestered life of this little town nestled in the hills, which in 1952 is a sizable industrial center. Instead of the picturesque stage and occasional trains, fast transportation both by train and airplane is now readily available, and the atomic age which evolved during World War II has brought the problems of a mechanized world to our very doors.
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CHAPTER XVII HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
ITT may not be true of Athol as is alleged of many New Eng- land towns that its streets were laid out first as cow paths, but it is true that many of our roads follow the general course marked two centuries ago by the Pioneers as they hewed their way through the forest.
In the eight years from 1886 to 1894 Athol developed rapidly from a rural town of several villages into a young metropolis and with this growth came advancement along many lines.
The town instructed the Selectmen on October 6, 1892 to investigate as to the cost of naming all the streets and roads and the numbering of the streets, but these officials seem to have neglected their duty in this respect, for no report was forthcoming from them.
On March 5, 1894 the matter came up again in town meet- ing and a committee of seven representative citizens was ap- pointed to suggest official names for all the streets and ways in town and to adopt some standard system of street number- ing. At the "April Meeting" of 1894 this committee reported a list of names for all the public ways in town and for several private ways and alleys. With one amendment regarding Mechanic Street, this report was adopted and the committee continued to adopt the numbering plan and put it into effect. At that time a standing ordinance or bylaw was adopted de- creeing that as new streets or roads are laid out, with the layout shall be reported a name for the new way.
The membership of this committee was E. V. Wilson, Samuel Lee, William H. Mellen, Thomas H. Goodspeed. L. B. Caswell, Lucien Lord, and Dr. James Oliver. Their work of well over a half century ago has stood the test of time, very few of the names adopted at that time having been changed.
After quite some investigation the committee decreed that a system of ten foot lots should be adopted and that this "should be uniform throughout the town, there being no devia- tion from the rule, even when streets are crossed or common lands abut the street.
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In the early summer of 1894 a contract was made with two then young men, Carl W. Hunt and William G. Lord, to do the entire numbering survey without cost to the town, their compensation being the perpetual privilege of keeping their records secret and divulging them only to those who would engage these men to attach metal numbers to their property, the price of these numbers or letters to be: one letter or figure 25c, two figures 40c, three figures 45c, and four figures 50c. As these numbers could be bought for two cents apiece it can be readily figured that there was accruing to these contractors a compensation averaging around thirty cents per front tene- ment entrance.
After the measuring was done Mr. Hunt had a business opportunity out of town and sold his interest in the enterprise to Mr. Lord, who proceeded to canvass the town, selling door numbers to a great majority of the property owners. In the late autumn of 1894, Price, Lee & Co. purchased the informa- tion for their forthcoming directory and some four years later the town appropriated $125.00 to purchase a copy of the records for the use of the assessors, the figure representing an estimated $25.00 expense of making a copy and $100.00 for the secret information. This copy was made and delivered to the assessors early that sumner and was used by them in making up the valuation of that year, but before another year rolled around the copy was lost and has never been found. Mr. Lord then loaned his records that the assessors might make themselves another copy, which was done that season, but that copy proved to be so full of errors that it has never been of any practical use to the town.
As new buildings have been built or old ones moved or altered, Mr. Lord fixed the proper number for the entrance and entered the information on his records, even when this entailed numbering entire new streets, and furnished the information without a penny of compensation since the payment of $125.00 by the town in 1898. About 1915 Mr. Lord made himself a new loose-leaf record book of this numbering and on this new book entered the new numbers as determined by him.
In 1947 the town appointed a committee to revise its by- laws of which the writer was a member. In the course of the deliberations of this committee I offered the suggestion that I be relieved of further responsibility regarding this number- ing, offering to donate all records in my hands. The by-law committee recommended to the town that the records be ·deposited with the Town Clerk and that the Highway Surveyor
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be charged with the field work. After word was received in late 1950 that our by-laws had been approved the records were turned over as agreed upon and the street numbering is now in charge of these two town officials.
This venture proved profitable to the contractors as an initial investment, but if some fifty-six years' service (occasional to. be sure) is taken into account it was no bonanza.
In fixing names for the various ways and byways the Com- mittee tried to use names already in use as far as possible and where there was no such name, tried to perpetuate some name fitting for the locality, endeavoring to avoid duplication. Many near duplicates were either decreed by the Committee in 1894 or had been adopted since, so that after forty years there was considerable confusion. In 1932 the town appointed Mr. Lord, who has been familiar with the system from its inception; Clarence E. Deane, then Postmaster; and Arthur S. Bisbee of the Telephone Company staff, to revise the list and eliminate duplications as far as possible.
This committee made a tentative proposition eliminating all duplication and then gave a hearing on the matter, but the protest was so strong that in a few cases the committee yielded and allowed a Park Avenue and a Park Street and a Highland Street and a Highland Avenue to remain, but did succeed in eliminating the triplicate name Highland Place by changing it to Auburn Place.
Some years since, this author wrote for Athol Daily News "Highways and By-ways of Athol" telling in detail the story of each public way in town but that story seems to be too voluminous for inclusion in this history. Of the numerous sub- divisions that in the last ninety years have been made of Athol territory, there is a story to tell which follows in chronological order:
The Sally Fish Development
This was the putting on the market of a considerable portion of the old Fish homestead in the Walnut Street area. The land was owned by Henry Fish and at his decease in 1846 became the property of his sons, Ezra Wilson and Samuel Fish, both minors. Their mother, Sally Fish, quickly became their legal guardian and lost no time in offering quite a section of their farm for sale as building lots. Church, Walnut, Union, the north end of Canal, Maple and the west end of Newton Streets were plotted by her and in a comparatively few years all became
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public ways and the land bordering on them was all taken up by new purchasers, excepting only the Baptist Church lot and the present Fish Park, both of which were donated by Mrs. Fish for public use.
On March 20, 1854 John H. Partridge, auctioneer, con- ducted a sale of several tracts of land belonging to the Henry Fish heirs; his report of the sale is as follows:
Building Lot No. 1 west of S. E. Twichell sold to J. C. Hill $500. Building Lots No. 2 & 3 west of the foregoing sold to Geo. Farr $950. Hop Meadow-24 acres sold to Samuel Newhall at $91.00 per acre. Island Lot sold to Benjamin Estabrook for $500.
The Lot over the River sold to Asa W. Twichell for $575.
To the modern reader this may need some interpretation: Lot No. 1 is clearly the First National Bank location, Lots 2 and 3 are presumably all land west of that location to Church Street; Hop Meadow was the intervale land north of Main Street and West of Canal Street; the Island Lot was all the Island and Marble Streets area.
The Plantation
We have already alluded to the wave of Temperance en- thusiasm which gripped this town around the middle of the last century. The crusaders were particularly vigorous in their denunciation of the management of the old tavern near Athol Common. Although the Selectmen had refused to recommend that a liquor license be granted by the County Commissioners to this tavern yet that County board over-ruled the local of- ficials.
Then our citizens determined to eliminate that hostelry and formed a group of their number to acquire the real estate and remove the building which had become obsolete after sixty years of use. With the building they acquired some ten acres west and northwest of its location. All of Central and Tremont Streets and considerable portions of High and Park Streets were laid out on this land and building lots offered for sale. The old tavern was dismembered, parts of it being converted into dwellings along the southerly side of Central Street. An offer of a bonus of $1000. was offered to anyone who would build a new hotel. The offer was accepted by Charles Horr and Samuel Lee, who the next year built the Summit House still remembered by many of our people. The bonus paid was not adequate to cover the losses incurred by these two then young men and they barely escaped bankruptcy because of the venture.
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The name came as a joke at first. Frederick Jones, son of old Prescott Jones had gone to Boston to seek his fortune in our Capital City but made frequent visits to the old home town. In the spring of 1854 he came here, just after the streets had been marked out. Upon looking over the layout, he remarked that it was "quite a plantation" and that name has stuck to the section to some extent to this day.
The Jonathan Drury Development
The "hard times of 1857" soon followed by the Civil War, precluded any new development activity for some years, but at length the war was over and quite a period of general pros- perity ensued. Encouraged by this general prosperity Jonathan Drury came down from the farm on the Garfield Road, where he had cared for his wife's parents, and first bought the Salmon D. Prouty saw mill on Petersham Road, now owned by the Mann Lumber Company. Soon leaving this, he joined with Fred Allen and a few others, organized the Union Furniture Company, developed a water power, and built a factory on Mill Brook below the match shop. Sensing a shortage of house lots, he with two associates, both of whom he soon bought off, bought of Mrs. R. C. Alexander some fifty acres south of the High School, laying out some twenty streets and building lots far in excess of the immediate needs of the town.
The town at one time refused to proceed with him as rapidly as he wanted it to go and refused to accept Allen Street and Park Avenue as public ways, but Mr. Drury with his character- istic Yankee insistence appealed to the County Commissioners who saw the vision the town could not see and ordered the streets accepted and built.
Now a school house lot, the whole area bounded by Allen, Riverbend and Congress Streets and Park Avenue, was planned by him as a public park, which he named Drury Park. For some years it was used as such, one of the earliest uses being on July 4, 1867 when a Temperance mass meeting was held there. My first recollection of the Evangelists, Moody and Sankey, was July 29, 1877 when they held open air meetings at this park. But over expansion and the "hard times of 1873" eventually overcame this worthy citizen and his property was taken from him by his creditors and his spirit was broken. He lived for some time at 184 Allen Street in one of the many houses he had built. Eventually even this shelter was taken from him and in Athol Almshouse he ended his days.
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Although he left no salable assets, yet to straighten out his affairs, it was necessary to probate his estate; thus the will he drew in the days of his prosperity is on file at Worcester Pro- bate Court, where anyone may read its provisions. I like best to remember Mr. Drury as revealed by this testament, wherein he planned to set up a not inconsiderable fund to be loaned at not over 5% interest to deserving young people to aid them in acquiring a home of their own.
The Charles W. Davenport Development
In the same period of prosperity that Mr. Drury laid out his extensive subdivision there were two active operations going on on the north side of the River. One was centered along Orange Street where several acres adjoining the Davenport home place now numbered 384 Crescent Street were opened up.
Wellington, Pierce, Orange, and Myrtle Streets were laid out at this time and several houses now standing there were erect- ed, but it was many years before the lots laid out were oc- cupied to any great extent. In fact, there are still a few vacant ones which were plotted seventy years ago. This venture did not prove profitable to the promoter and eventually he was compelled to compromise with his creditors, thus avoiding any bankruptcy proceedings.
The Cardany and Fish Tract
About the same time that Mr. Davenport cut up his land into house lots Joseph B. Cardany and William W. Fish bought a considerable portion of the Charles Goddard land, the house being at 434 Crescent Street, opening up this area for oc- cupancy. The southerly part of Brattle Street, Laurel Street, and the westerly part of Goodale Street is in this area. Even- tually these partners divided the part of their holdings that the public had not absorbed, Mr. Fish taking the section east of Silver Lake Street and Mr. Cardany the portion west of that street. Long years ago the Fish Family sold most of their frontage on Silver Lake Street for the homes there but only very recently has the bulk of the Cardany portion been taken up, the present Lenox Street (easterly section) having until within a comparatively short time been held by Mr. Cardany's daughter, Mrs. Mann.
Ridge Hill
And now we come to the era of official names for the sub- divisions. Sally Fish had long since laid both her sons away,
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first in the stone tomb and later in the marble tomb at Mount Pleasant, and thus succeeded to the ownership of all the Fish holdings. To the time of her death in 1887 she employed a caretaker and carried on her farming activities, her garden being the present Academy of Music lot and her pasture the Ridge Hill section. By her will she stipulated that her home place should not be sold for many years but her executors and trustees decreed that the term "home place" meant only her buildings and closely adjacent land. As her estate was sadly in need of ready cash they put her cow pasture on the market and speedily sold it to George D. Bates, D. Appleton Newton, and Leroy C. Parmenter, who proceeded forthwith to lay out the whole territory into lots, naming their entire tract Ridge Hill. Being almost within a stone's throw of Pequoig Square these lots were quickly in demand. Although a small section around Shore Drive is still unoccupied yet most of the area was quickly built upon, soon becoming one of the out- standing residential locations of the town.
Lake Park
Soon after the Sally Fish Trustees sold the Ridge Hill area they put her outlying lands on the market. South and west
LUCIEN LORD 1840 - 1916
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of Silver Lake were some thirty-five acres covered with heavy forest, which had been in the Fish Family many years. Seeing the availability of this acreage for house lots, Mr. Lucien Lord negotiated for it and with his brother-in-law, G. Everett Pierce of Royalston, soon acquired title and shortly lumbering opera- tions were in full swing there. Mr. William H. Mellen located his steam mill where the Lake Park School now stands and the lumber was stuck up on the Stratton meadow west of Fish Street. This Stratton meadow as well as the James Cotton meadow northwest of it was soon acquired and the whole area laid out by Mr. L. B. Caswell as Civil Engineer into some 217 building lots. The project speedily met favor with our towns- people and as fast as an area was opened up many building lots would be sold and a considerable number of houses erected. Had Mr. Lord ceased his real estate operations for a decade or more after the Lake Park venture it would seem that he might well have continued in affluent circumstances and the town been spared the serious slump in real estate values that followed his further operations. Lake Park was a timely de- velopment and is today one of our best residential areas.
South Park
Ethan Lord died in Athol in 1889 at a ripe old age, leaving many acres of land as a part of his large estate to be divided among his next of kin. For the succeeding three years during the lifetime of his widow, Thankful (Richardson), his estate was kept intact, but after her decease it was divided among his four children who had survived him. In this division Mr. Lucien Lord took many acres of land that were then of very small value but which to him seemed to have much potential worth. One of these tracts was located just south of the town where the new Sanders Street had been cut through less than ten years before. Almost immediately after this land became his individual property, Lucien Lord cut off the heavy growth of timber, some of it a remnant of the primeval forest, and taking into association with him Mr. William D. Luey, then cashier of Millers River Bank, they soon had Mr. Caswell busy laying out streets and building lots, naming this new tract South Park.
Lucien Lord adopted the slogan "Outlay for rent is money il! spent" and launched upon an advertising campaign the like of which Athol had never before seen. Comparatively few lots in this area were sold to bonafide home owners but many people, encouraged by the success of Lake Park, bought there
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as a speculation or investment, whichever term you choose to apply to the general buying spree which ensued.
The 129 lots on this tract were certainly not needed at that time but a confiding and hopeful public might well have ab- sorbed the surplus without serious effects on the general real estate market had that been the end.
Fairview
Encouraged by the success of Lake Park in the northern part of the town and the continued upward trend of general business through the Harrison Administration at Washington, Lewis Sanders conceived the idea of a development west of his millyard. Enlisting with him Leroy C. Parmenter, then a hardware merchant and one of our Board of Assessors, they acquired a considerable area on the hilltop and most approp- riately named it Fairview. Some four or five houses were built there before the "hard times of 1893" when all activities suspended and the whole project lay inactive for many years.
Eventually Wilbur H. Mckellips acquired the unsold portion of the original tract together with considerable additional land, making in all some 55 acres, which he passed on to James Pettine for development. The original plan was never recorded but of the subsequent project there is a very good plan on file. Comparatively little of this pretentious subdivision is in any sense developed at the present time.
The affairs of both the original developers were eventually wound up in the courts of bankruptcy. Mr. Sanders removed to the State of Washington where he lived and mildly pros- pered for a considerable number of years, but Mr. Parmenter died in Athol quite tragically and suddenly soon after this real estate venture.
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